And the way they bailed out of Afghanistan.
Steve
4 Likes
When you live in a media cocoon and hear nothing else, why wouldnât you believe it? We have seen plenty of evidence of the same here just in the past few days.
I have read that people in Russia knew what the US was like because they had access to Hollywood movies, even if pirated and DVDs surreptitiously passed from friend to friend. I wonder if the people of North Korea will ever come out from under the ether? Or those in our local cult believing the bloviators masquerading as ânewsâ?
6 Likes
Just like Americans. Plenty of them believe the US has never lost a warâŚ
3 Likes
Seriously? The CIA has been releasing phone calls to our news outlets of Russian raw recruits calling their mothers and wives. It is not pretty.
Seriously the Russians troops have no reason to fight in Ukraine. You know that. The Russian command is giving convicts a reason but then using all of them up as cannon fodder. Dead does not count.
The Sino Russian war Japan won that as well.
1 Like
Yep itâs in the article.
Andy
How do you think the families of the American soldiers who died in Iraq or Afghanistan felt? Did they have a reason to die THERE?
2 Likes
Well, they certainly didnât win in WW1.
DB2
2 Likes
The Americans see their government and their history differently than the Russians. The Russians mostly get the point that their governments endless are crapola. It is not some sort of secret.
This was not the point.
Do you have any idea how many people live in a distorted reality?
Probably the vast majority.
Things have changed long time ago, especially in the US.
And dying in Afghanistan remains âvery delicateâ no matter how much you trust your countryâs government.
Youâre right, but donât you think itâs infinitely worse how the US bailed out of Afghanistan over 30 years later?
1 Like
Those families may have been crucial in electing Trump in 2016.
Lt Gen Ben Hodges retired, former NATO Allied Land Command from 2012 to 2014, talks about Ukraine taking Crimea:NATO leaders talk tanks, ammo and support for Ukraine â DW â 04/21/2023
His portion starts at 20 minutes, 34 seconds into the piece.
Thomas Wiegold, a German miltary expert questions whether Ukraine has the military capability to accomplish the isolation of Crimea.
Hodges believes the Russia military is ready to crack.
No, I donât think itâs infinitely worse. It was a crap show, to be sure, but we had already spent more years there trying to âfix itâ than any war in previous American history, and it was time to admit we didnât do it.
The way we left was a joke, of course, and we can point fingers in either direction, but the truth is absent decisive victory, every war ends this way. (See: Vietnam. Also see how Russia pulled out of Afghanistan, how the Nazis left France (prior to VE Day) and any number of others while âleaving in progress.â
What is infinitely worse is having the most powerful military on the planet, spending more than the rest of the world combined, and getting stalemated by guys on mules with crap guns from the USSR. Add that one to Vietnam, the continuing fiascos over Pentagon waste (F-22, ships that arenât wanted, etc.) and I would say âinfinitely worseâ is the Pentagonâs inability to manage anything, anywhere, all at once.
Itâs actually frightening in a long term way, and I am beginning to understand how the mighty Roman Empire and its armored warriors fell to barbarians with stones.
8 Likes
We could have won in Afghanistan. We could have murdered every last one of the Afghanis. That is not really winning either.
What do any of you want?
Clubber I go by one thingâŚAristotleâs version of a legitimate government. Russia, China are not legitimate. Leaves a couple of creeps in charge.
Met a woman from Uzbekistan today. She said Putin is loved in Uzbekistan. Okay. I discussed the peaceful transfer of power as the only thing that matters and her reply was that is something different. Again that is all that matters. If you do not have that in your country your country is worthless to me.
1 Like
Yâall should read todayâs bbc article on Pavel Kuzin.
Very well said, this is exactly what I meant.
What others did a hundred years ago shouldn´t have been repeated, mankind has evolved enormously, science, technology and the living standards of many countries have evolved.The tragedies of the last 20 years could´ve been avoided, if people had learned something from history.
The consequence of these wars is the continued destabilisation of countries or even entire continents.
The Russians could have done the same thing.
âEverything has to come to an end, sometime.â (L. Frank Baum)
2 Likes
reiterating because the differences are stark based on this.
That all well and good, but Aristotle didnât rule anything. In fact, for nearly all of human history, Aristotle would have been appalled by governments around the world, and through all of time. Monarchies, dictators, autocracy, theocracy, dictatorship, authoritarianism, call them anything you like, but they have (mostly) existed to enrich the few at the expense of the many, to force the many to conform to the beliefs of the few.
This is reality, not some dreamy philosophy course. There are almost 200 governments in the world today. In the past there have been many more, as city-states were laws unto themselves. Nearly all have been ruled by a single person, perhaps surrounded by a small group of advisors who they were free to ignore.
We live in a remarkably time in history, with many democracies in existence, but even then vast swathes of the planet under tyrannical rule, and even some democracies teetering on the brink of âI am the saviorâ.
I picked the right time and place to be born, thatâs for sure. Been lucky my whole life.
8 Likes
Goofy,
Welcome to our choir.
That makes Aristotle all the more aware and the truth.
Our split from history really begins with England being an island separate from the rest of Europe. No matter how I can fault England from slavery to the occupation of Ireland, the Magna Carta begins power sharing as the western powers know it today. The rest is the fruits of history no matter how bloody it has been.
Today:
Russiaâs invasion of Ukraine has turbocharged demand for weapons. Now arms makers face the challenge of hiring thousands of skilled workers to capitalize on an influx of orders. Defense companies in the U.S. and Europe are working through record order books after Western governments increased spending in recent years amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Yesterday:
But even with higher near-term production rates, the U.S. cannot replenish its stockpile or catch up to the usage pace in Ukraine, where officials estimate that the Ukrainian military is firing 6,000 to 8,000 shells per day. In other words, two daysâ worth of shells fired by Ukraine equates to the United Statesâ monthly pre-war production figure.
The Russians are firing 40,000 shells per day, said Ustinova, who serves on Ukraineâs wartime oversight committee.
âSo weâre doing five times less than they do and trying to keep it up. But if we donât start the production lines, if you donât warm it up, it is going to be a huge problem,â Ustinova said.
March 25:
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraineâs counter-offensive against Russia cannot start until Western allies send more military support.
He told a Japanese newspaper he would not send his troops to the front lines without more tanks, artillery and Himars rocket launchers.
The above statements I believe were made to light a fire under US & NATO members feet.
Zelensky needs the offensive with sufficient weaponry to raise the morale of his nation and his munition suppliers. Regardless of what the US & NATO members said in the past Ukraine support is NOT unending. Zelensky will have to make significant progress in his new offensive. Otherwise pressure from his suppliers to negotiate will begin.
The upcoming offensive is a make or break moment for Ukraine. IMO